The risotto was another great side dish for our Food Day in Canada celebration this weekend. This recipe is adapted from one we found on the Epicurious website called Red Chard Risotto. The motivation for trying the dish was to make something special with our Swiss chard that came in this week’s CSA food basket from Roots and Shoots Farm. One of our celebration guests was Italian so she lovingly brought all the ingredients together to perfection. Nice when it can be authentic too!

Heat oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and chard stems and sauté until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add rice and stir for about 3 minutes. Add wine and simmer until absorbed, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes.

Add hot broth 3/4 cup at a time. Simmer rice and stir constantly until the broth is absorbed. Then add another 3/4 cup of broth and repeat. When the last broth is added, also add the chard leaves. They will cook down very quickly. Simmer until rice is just tender and risotto is creamy. The entire cooking time is about 20 minutes. Mix in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese; season to taste with salt and pepper. Add butter and stir. Consider adding more Parmesan cheese. Serves 6.

I had stumbled across the recipe for Spinach Salad with Apples, Avocado & Bacon one day when I was taking a leisurely browse through Epicurious.com. I was in search of a solution for an avocado and a Gala apple and this recipe instantly clicked. The author, Jeff Edmunds, published it in Bon Appétit in the December 2000 issue.

I am quite fond of the President’s Choice Thick-Sliced bacon whenever a recipe calls for the salty stuff. In hindsight, I think I could have used less as it seems to remain substantial through the rendering. And perhaps a few extra chops with the chef’s knife before it hit the salad would have made its bite a more appropriately portioned for its crispy crunch. The salty flavour has a way of making a fruity apple pop.

I was originally planning to serve the salad with Baby Back Ribs since I saw them on sale at Farm Boy. My shopping excursion afforded me very well priced Extra Lean Ground Beef and also steeply reduced Striploin Steaks.

Knowing I was getting short on my shopping to dinner window, I decided to go with steaks for today and the ribs can be tomorrow’s delight. The steak proved to be a worthy choice in that it allowed me to move along some onions, mushrooms and potatoes. In the end I was glad that the Striploin was not full price as there was too much grisel for our liking. We much prefer a steak that cuts like hot knife through butter. So I won’t be telling you to run to Farm Boy for this special but the salad is certainly worth a try!